Trade Pacts, China Currency Legislation Could All be on the Table as US Congress Returns

Major movement could be on the horizon for Washington's trade agenda as Congress returns from its August recess, with one trade-related bill - the renewal of the lapsed Generalized System of Preferences - tentatively scheduled for a vote in the US House of Representatives later today. The renewal...

With an appeal by China in the China-Raw Materials (DS394, 395, 398) case and a new consultation request by the EU regarding the Canadian province of Ontario's controversial feed-in tariff programme for renewable energy (DS426), two high-stakes - and high-profile - environmental disputes recently...

Australia's controversial carbon tax plan has received a public pledge of support from Europe, though the measure continues to face substantial opposition at home. In a 5 September bilateral meeting between European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Australian Prime Minister Julia...

Public health concerns over cigarettes and protectionism fears over spirits tariffs featured in some of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body's (DSB) work over the August recess, with the DSB releasing two new panel reports over the last few weeks. These reports concerned a Philippine excise tax for...

Domestic food aid payments in the US have doubled between 2002 and 2009, new figures show - pushing total farm subsidy levels to a record high of US$114 billion. The data, from Washington's official report to the WTO on 2009 spending levels, classes nine-tenths of recent US farm support as green...

The US fiscal deficit is pushing legislators to consider cuts in areas previously held sacred, including agriculture subsidies. In recognition of changes in the amount of money available to agriculture, the National Cotton Council - the US lobbying group for the cotton industry - recently conceded...

GLOBAL FOOD STAMPS: AN IDEA WORTH CONSIDERING? By Tim Josling for the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). This paper, commissioned by ICTSD, analyses whether an international scheme for targeted consumer food subsidies could represent a practical contribution to...